Does Chrome by itself check downloaded files and warn they should be removed if infected?

Oron J

March 25, 2014 at 12:06 pm

I'd need to see the exact message to be able to comment on it. Here's what I do know. Google carry out all sorts of anti-malware checks (for example, GMail is scanned for viruses in both incoming and outgoing mail), and there are a variety of cloud checks on sites which Chrome takes advantage of (similar to WOT in concept). However, Chrome itself does not scan for viruses at all (given that it is updated every 4-6 weeks such a scan would be fairly pointless anyway). I have seen infected files which were downloaded with Chrome both on clients' PCs and sadly, on my own...

Perhaps that certain "suspicious" files are flagged up (perhaps their extensions suggest that they are dodgy), but this is more like medical screening than real AV activity, just a general warning (but again, I've never come across this myself, it's only a possibility).

A proper antivirus package will do what's called on-access scanning. That is, it scans a file when it is written to disc or read from it. Therefore, every file which is being downloaded will be scanned and if infected, a message to that effect will by shown immediately. Is it possible that this is what you came across?

Oron J

March 23, 2014 at 6:54 pm

No. Google Search filters and will warn you about malicious sites (see Hovsep's answer), but Google Chrome is not an antivirus and it does not scan downloaded files. For that, you need an antivirus package on your computer.

Drsunil V

March 24, 2014 at 6:53 pm

Thanks. I understand , but on downloading a bad file through Chrome browser I was alerted that it is harmful file and whether it be removed or received and this alert did not seem to be afiliated to antivirus installed. May be Chrome works as non fullfledged antivirus?

Google chrome on your desktop does not have fully fledged antimalware tool, Google chrome offer phishing- and malware-protection a sandboxing function, and updates itself in the background for better protection. Google downloads a list of information to your Google Chrome browser about sites that may contain malwares or engage in phishing. If the URL is not in the list, Google chrome browser will contact Google’s servers for more information. Regarding Phishing Google Chrome analyze the content on the site and warn you if it seems suspicious

What is Safe Browsing?https://developers.google.com/safe-browsing/
•Warn users before clicking on links that appear in your site when they lead to malware-infected pages.
•Prevent users from posting links to known phishing pages from your site.
•Check a list of pages against Google's lists of suspected phishing and malware pages.

Drsunil V

March 30, 2014 at 5:29 pm

Thanks. I understand that the references mean to infer notifying sites , but NOT files? Is it? Please note , that after downloading a malicious file through Chrome , a got a notification near the downloaded file whether to accept or reject file and notification seemed to come from Chrome!